Some days ago, I ran across the shovelglove web page and was amused and intrigued. I went to a local hardware store and got myself a 10 pound sledgehammer (13 pounds with the fiberglass handle) and made myself a shovelglove. I love it!!! Thanks, Reinhard!

This morning was my third 14 minute SG session. I've managed to stick to this routine every day:

1) 50 Shovels on each side.
2) 20 Churn Butter (first with left hand leading, then another 20 with right hand leading).
3) 20 Chop Wood on each side.
4) 8 Levers on each side (these are hard!)
5) 10 Hoist The Sack on each side.

The above takes about 10-12 minutes and then I just play around, making up moves.

"Kill The Dragon" is one of my favorites, where you use the SG as a spear.

"Paint The Eight" is weirdly hard. This is where I hold the SG with both hands in front of me and pretend to paint a figure eight in the air.

Anyways. I'm a bit sore, but in a fun way.

Best regards,

---Kayvan

Last edited by kayvan on Tue Dec 19, 2006 9:26 pm; edited 1 time in total

As another former martial artist (Chinese Kung Fu), I was pleasantly surprised at the versatility and the difficulty of the shovelglove. After I have swung the sledgehammer around for a few months, doing a Kwan-Dao form will be a piece of cake.

This morning, I was slower than the previous mornings, so there was not that many extra "Kill The Dragon" and "Disembowel the Dragon" moves (thanks, Reinhard! That's a great name!).

I am definitely feeling it in my shoulders and arms for a few hours after the workouts.

Today, the invariant part of the workout (50 shovel, 20 butter-churn, 20 chop-wood, 8 levers, 20 hoist-the-sack) took about 11 minutes, giving me three minutes to have unstructured fun. I used that time to repeatedly Kill and Disembowel the Dragon.

I can already feel a difference.

My fourteen year old son has joined me this week in the early morning 14 minutes. I got him a 6-pound sledgehammer and he's having fun with it. He was complaining that his arms are sore and I told him that the same happened with me and that as he continues, the soreness will start to go away in a day or two.

We finished the static portion of our routine in about 9 minutes today, and I even was able to move my hands a bit back from the weighted end of the sledgehammer (increasing the effort needed).

The rest of the time was spent playing around and my son and I sort of evolved a scenario that went like this:

The dragon is attacking our lands, so we must Kill The Dragon! (10-20 times on each side, spear-thrusting movements up at a 45 degree angle). The dragon is dead, let's Disembowel The Dragon to be sure! (5 figure eights in the air on each side).

Okay, now that the dragon is dead, we have to get back to our farm. We cross the lake by gondola (10-20 rowing motions on each side).

When we get there, we must feed the chickens (hold the shovelglove horizontally in front of you, and making shaking motions as you move it from side to side, to mimic spreading bird seed).

Wait, this dragon was pregnant! Even as it dies, it's giving birth to baby dragons. The baby dragons are trying to eat our chickens!

Kill The Baby Dragons!!! (10-20 spear motions downward, killing the baby dragons). Okay, it's all over now. What a mess! We must clean ourselves up (being covered with dragon blood and guts), which means we need to pump some water (Make 10-20 pumping motions with the shovelgvlove on each side).

The timer then went off... I hope you enjoyed this fantastical shovelglove adventure. _________________Father, Husband, Writer, Software Geek.

Last edited by kayvan on Wed Dec 20, 2006 6:38 pm; edited 1 time in total

Hey guys,
I am a 42 mother of 4 boys and one girl. I found shovelgloving from Joel Ellis' 20 minute workout site (he is an old friend). Since I am not up to a full fledged sledge hammer, I went out to the garage and got my husband's 5 pounder. The handle is a bit short, but I can use it. This is a great workout and so much fun. I love kayvan's dragon slaying theme, this may be the ticket to get my teenage boys to workout with me. The stoke the oven (Kill the dragon) move is my favorite. I have started with 21 reps each Driving fence post, churning butter, shoveling, chopping wood, stoke the oven, and tuck the bales. And 14 reps each of flip the lever and hoist the sack. Then I finish out my time with Hindu squats and stretching._________________Prof Mom of 5
I have not greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth
3 John 4

In any given set, I always do the left side first. That way when time runs out I have done equal or more total volume on the left side. One benefit of shovelglove that I have noticed is that I am much more symmetrical now strength, agility, and size-wise.

In any given set, I always do the left side first. That way when time runs out I have done equal or more total volume on the left side. One benefit of shovelglove that I have noticed is that I am much more symmetrical now strength, agility, and size-wise.

I've always kept my workout exactly the same for both sides. I do notice that my left side is still slightly weaker, but it's not a huge difference and so I don't care. I figure if I do the same thing long enough on both sides, they'll wind up more or less the same.

I was doing the routine with my son (who chose to get up with me at 5:45 AM to do it). I think he was not as awake as he should have been.

Halfway through our exercise, he smacked the kitchen table pretty good. Made a pretty big noise, but thankfully, no huge dent. He's lucky that Mom was not awake and that it was just me who saw it. I didn't even have to say anything.

When I get done with my sets, I do an extra mini-set just with my left arm now. I can already feel my left side getting stronger.

Yesterday, I did anther session. I have been consistent and the bulging biceps I am developing are my tangible side-benefits.

So, for yesterday's workout, I took the shovelglove to work along with a kitchen timer, then slipped away in the middle of the day to retrieve the hammer from my car, do the routine in the workout room for 14 minutes, and put it back in my car.

This is not my usual practice. I like to do it before work, but I was running late, so I just packed up my shovelglove and did it when it was convenient. Yet another point for the shovelglove. It's portable (both in terms of space and time).

I think between my smacking myself in the head "churning butter," Kevin's hammer head flying off, and your kitchen table, we have sufficient material for a "shovelglove mishaps" page

Heh. Yeah. I had a pet mishap too. My beagle is usually asleep in the morning and remains asleep as I shovelglove about six feet away from him. One morning, he was startled awake by a noise and managed to walk right behind me as I was on the down-swing of a Flip The Lever move. The contact with his skull made a "Thud" like noise and now he is appropriately leery of the big fuzzy thing on the end of the big yellow stick that I swing around in the morning.

reinhard wrote:

p.s congrats on the "side benefits!"

Thanks. Now I'm working on doing my moves slightly faster and with more force to see if I can build up the arms and the rest of the body even more using the shovelglove.

Hey Kayvan, I just wanted to congratulate you on getting so into Shovelglove and having such a great time with it, and involving your Son!
That's great!!! Six pound hammers are a good choice
Beware Dragons all around the world!
Hope you have a great weekend!

I might just *downgrade* my hammer at some point this year, when I can afford a new one, because the agility and ease factor might be better than with my 12 lb one, at least for these very active scenarios..

And, I read what you said about being amazed at how quick you develop those solid muscles.. I totally agree with you and it's a great feeling!

Have a nice weekend.
Peace,
Debs_________________There is no Wisdom greater than Kindness

Hey Kayvan, I just wanted to congratulate you on getting so into Shovelglove and having such a great time with it, and involving your Son!
That's great!!! Six pound hammers are a good choice
Beware Dragons all around the world!
Hope you have a great weekend!

Thank you. Yes, it has been great fun.

gratefuldeb67 wrote:

I might just *downgrade* my hammer at some point this year, when I can afford a new one, because the agility and ease factor might be better than with my 12 lb one, at least for these very active scenarios..

And, I read what you said about being amazed at how quick you develop those solid muscles.. I totally agree with you and it's a great feeling!

Have a nice weekend.
Peace,
Debs

Dang! You are using a 12-pounder? What is that with the handle? 14 pounds? My ten pound hammer weighs in at 13 pounds with the yellow fiberglass handle.

You have a great weekend too._________________Father, Husband, Writer, Software Geek.

Yeah, with the handle it's actually close to 15 I think..
But the handle isn't really part of the force of pull... That's the crucial part of the whole thing.. The leveraging of the heads weight is what it's all about.

I have been totally not doing SG for a long while.. I can't figure out why.
It kinda stopped when I moved to our new cottage.. It's fairly cramped for space... And especially, I think it has something to do with the fact that my room, where there is enough room to safely or enjoyably, swing a sledge, has one tiny little window in it, in the front door.
I actually find it so depressing to be in that room, and spend most of my waking time in my Son's room which has the computer and two very large windows.. My room just feels like a box, and much of it is taken up by my bed. I don't feel inspired to do exercise in it at all, including my beloved Yoga and meditation.

Still, I'm gonna try again starting this month, since my energy is beginning to return today, after a two month stint of me and my Son being sick with flus...

Shovelglove, when I do it, has always had an amazing effect on my mind and mood.
It's a real upper!
Maybe if I stick at it long enough, I'll be able to develop strength to do a handstand in Yoga..

Have a great day!
Peace,
Debs_________________There is no Wisdom greater than Kindness

I had my yearly physical exam this morning. The doctor was clearly amazed with the changes I have made since the last time he saw me.

My weight on their scale was 144 (about 25 pounds less than their last measurement). My BP was 84/50. My resting heartrate was in the low 60's.

I told him about calorie-count.com and about shovelglove.com and he said "You know. It sounds hokey at first, but it makes a lot of sense. I think I'm going to get myself a sledgehammer too and start doing it."

The best part was this: When I was last there (more than a year ago), he offered to measure my body fat percentage using one of those electrical impedance devices. At that time I was up around 27% BF.

I asked him to measure me today. My new reading: 17%!!! When the device registered that reading, he shook my hand vigorously and said "Congratulations! I am impressed!"

All of the numbers match my Tanita scale (with its body fat percentage reading) which also gives me confidence in my at home measurements.

They took some blood and I won't get the results of their tests for another week.

I do the whole thing in the fourteen minutes, with a few seconds to spare. I am wondering what to do to go to the next level, however. The routine is starting to become just a tad stale.

Any suggestions?

---Kayvan

Kayvan,
Same here and one thing I've done is substitute the exercise I found the most 'stale' in my routine for 10 hindu pushups:
http://www.hindupushups.com/
Hindu pushups give a full body workout , especially the back, abs, shoulders and triceps.
I recommend to add them at the end of the routine for when you're warm to reduce risk of injury.

One thing I do to balance the two competing goods of habit and novelty is to stick with a pretty fixed routine (or two) four days a week, and experiment on Fridays. If an experiment is particularly fruitful (after having given it a few Fridays to really try it out) I consider inserting it into the routine.

For starters, there are a bunch of movements in the "standard" repertoire that you're not currently doing that you might want to experiment with: drive fence posts, stoke over, the fireman, chop tree. Then there are a bunch of not-yet standard movements that have been proposed in the forum here (and will eventually be standardized!).

Besides movements, other things you can experiment with are "scenarios" to tie them together, and rep counts.

I have been faithfully sticking to the routine for about four months now.

The other day, at the local playground, I jumped up on the pull-up bar and to my utter amazement and delight was able to do 5 pull-ups. A couple of days later, I went back and was able to do 7 pull-ups.

I have never been able to do more than one (and that one only with the "assistance" of my high school gym teacher cajoling and yelling at me to do it).

The only thing I do for strength training these days is shovelglove and sporadic sets of push-up variants, and shovelglove is the only consistent piece of my routine. I can therefore state unequivocally that my newfound ability to do pull-ups is due to the shovelglove workout!

Nice! I've tried a few times at the playground... but the "what the hell are you doing looks?" I get from the other mommies and daddies (or imagine I'm getting) stop me way before I physically max out.

7 is very respectable -- especially if you haven't been specifically training by doing them.

I'm very happy to read about all these cross-exercise strength and conditioning benefits shovelglove seems to be delivering to people on this board -- bench press, pullups, even running. It makes sense, I guess, but it's still somehow surprising.

I have been looking into wushu as a source of inspiration as well. I got a VCD with a Shuang Chui (double hammer) form which is great since you can use it "as is: for exercises using two one-handed hammers: http://www.chinesemall.com/mizushuangchui.html

I wonder if you know or would recommend two-handed weapon forms that would translate well to shovelgloving. I will definitely check the Kwan-Dao.

As of my 41st birthday (August 19th) I came up with the idea that I would do at least twice my weight in pushups every day. My thinking is that by the time I'm 75, I'm doing 150 pushups a day and keeping fit and that the increment from year to year (two extra pushups) is no big deal.

I've kept that promise to myself and it does not take that long. I do at least one set of 41 pushups in the morning now and it takes about 1-2 minutes. Later in the day, I take a break and do another set. Another 1-2 minutes. It's gotten easier every day and my form has gotten better.

This is an application of what I'm calling "the shovelglove philosophy": small incremental efforts applied consistently to improve an area of life.

As of my 41st birthday (August 19th) I came up with the idea that I would do at least twice my weight in pushups every day.

I hope you mean twice your age.... Good idea too, I may have to incorporate that!

Quote:

This is an application of what I'm calling "the shovelglove philosophy": small incremental efforts applied consistently to improve an area of life.

Reminds me of the martial art legend of the student who was instructed to lift a baby calf (the same calf) every morning before training. By the time he had completed his training he could lift a cow. Or the Paul Bunyon-esque tall tale of the gold rush prospector who would incrementally put a gold nugget or two in his pocket every day, and spend the whole day jumping back & forth across the creek he was panning. By the time he reached where the creek flowed in to town, he cashed in his gold for bank notes, and accidentally jumped over the horizon, never to be heard from again.

As of my 41st birthday (August 19th) I came up with the idea that I would do at least twice my weight in pushups every day.

I hope you mean twice your age.... Good idea too, I may have to incorporate that!

Yes, I meant twice my age.

When I do my requisite 82 per day, I sometimes just do a few more for fun or with strange variations. One variation I like these days is what I call "Tai Chi" pushups... Start in pushup plank position and do a pushup as slowly as you can. One pushup can take me thirty seconds or longer. It's real fun torture._________________Father, Husband, Writer, Software Geek.

Twice one's weight might be brutally hard, but what incentive to trim down

Hmmm... Doing my weight in pounds is actually doable. That only adds another 50-60 pushups per day. I think I'll stick to twice my age.

reinhard wrote:

Age sounds good too (for now -- I'd be curious whether there are any 80 year olds who can bang out 160 pushups a day).

Yes. Jack LaLanne, who just turned 93, could probably easily pop out 200 pushups a day.

reinhard wrote:

Does the tai chi (aka "torture") pushup count as just one? Watch out or you're going to wind up with post traumatic stress disorder!

I don't do the torture pushups till I have done my 82 normal-ish pushups (mostly I do normal pushups and incline pushups, where my feet are on a chair for example)._________________Father, Husband, Writer, Software Geek.

Once I get the movements discussion threads all linked to the movements pages (you wouldn't think it would take this long, but I somehow always seem to have some slightly higher priority), I'll link to it from the new "routines" section.

Wow. It's been several years. I hope there are people still doing this!

I just re-started again today. I was moving some stuff around and found my two shovelgloves (a ten pounder and twelve pounder) in my office and just on a lark started up again.

I walk a lot (using my FitBit and my Inspire gadgets) and I've been thinking of getting a power-rack and an olympic weight set, but meanwhile, I figured "Why wait? I have my old friend here." so I put a timer on for fourteen minutes and started swinging it around.